STAN Chair and Interior Min. Vít Rakušan told Václav Moravec of Czech TV yesterday that the very fact that the police arrested Petr Hlubuček (who resigned last week as dep. Prague mayor) and others is evidence that he isn’t interfering with investigations. Interior ministers might have done this in the past, Rakušan said, but he never will. He specifically mentioned the 2016 police reform of Interior Min. Milan Chovanec of ČSSD, which he said was political. In his 2020 book, ex-Dir. Robert Šlachta of the ÚOOZ crime unit wrote that Chovanec’s reform came about because lawyer Radek Pokorný got into a panic after the police seized documents related to Czech Railways’ arbitration with Škoda Transportation. Pokorný put pressure on PM Bohuslav Sobotka, Šlachta wrote, and Sobotka gave the job to Chovanec. The result was the reorganization that led to Šlachta’s departure. According to Petr Kolář of MFD, Pokorný is now operating at the industry ministry, where Jozef Síkela (STAN) is busy not resolving the energy crisis. The fascinating thing about the STAN scandal is that it goes over both Pokorný’s and Rakušan’s head.

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